Poles Apart - San Roque - Donations

POLES APART
Whilst the Cordoba accord will take the sting out of the past separation of the Communities of Gibraltar and the Comarca there is still a lot that separates us in so far as cultural attitudes are concerned and above all those issues related to alleged corruption.

For instance the Mayor of La Linea Carlos Juarez who leads a bankrupt municipality spends more time answering charges in the La Linea Court than he does in his Mayoral suited of offices. And when he is there he has got his time cut out in dealing with the mountain of debts that keeps growing by the hour.

Not a day goes past without rumblings of threats by official bodies that services will be suspended because Juarez is unable to meet the Town’s financial obligations. For example La Linea Town Council owes more than one million euros to the Fire Service Consortium that provides cover for the seven municipalities of the Comarca. La Linea is threatened that it may soon find itself without a Fire Protection Service because of the massive debts. And what does Clown Juarez say about this. Simple. That he will pay soon. But soon never arrives and never is there a remotest chance of the debt being paid. And yet it is almost impossible for a vital service to refuse to attend a call where lives may be at stake. So it goes on and on and the debts mount and Juarez’s Political masters in Madrid re-cycled Fascists, Rajoy, Zaplana and Acebes look the other way. These guys are famous for protesting about any sensible policy carried out by the Governing Party, the PSOE and cannot, will not or ignore what is going on in their own backyard.

Worst still when the La Linea Mayor Clown Juarez was adopted a party member of the Partido Popular, that is Rajoys mob, has been instructed to attend the Court of Justice in La Linea to appear before an examining Magistrate to answer charges, as an accused person, in relation to the issuing of false and illegal contracts to party cronies in 1999 when Juarez got into power. The charges are quite serious, embezzlement and breach of official duty. In addition to this scandal Juarez has also to answer charges about the missing then 10 million pesetas in traffic fines, largely to Gibraltarians, which were never paid into the municipal treasury department.

Rajoy, Zaplana and Acebes who protest everything under the sun and especially when issues relate to Gibraltar completely ignore the fact that they have a criminally accused person in their political ranks. In any civilized and honourable party this Clown would have been suspended pending investigation.

And what happens, Clown Juarez still calls press conferences to tell the Linenses, who voted him and his party into power, what a fantastic person he is and what he has done for La Linea., without of course meeting his financial obligations simply because the Town has run out of cash.

Not only that Clown Juarez’s henchman Manuel Aguilera who is also accused with his boss of embezzlement and breach of duty has gone as far as accusing the Provincial Court in Algeciras of a complete lack of impartiality thus ignoring Aguilera’s human rights. In addition Aguilera intends to levy criminal charges against the Magistrates (plural) for breach of duty. This clearly demonstrates ex Fascist Aguilera’s true political credentials.

These are the people that our Government present or new may at one stage or another have to deal with on issues of common interest.

Unfortunately, for all that may be said about new climate of understanding, there is a gulf which separates the communities where in Gibraltar the standards of behaviour and respect for the law and principles of trust integrity reign supreme but unfortunately from what we know this is not the case in the Comarca and La Linea in particular.

SAN ROQUE
In the wake of the La Linea scandals of the mayor attending the Criminal Court as an accused none other than Mayor of San Roque Jose Vasquez has been accused of using construction companies associated with his family of carrying out work for the municipality without going through tender procedures.

Mayor Vasquez has insisted that he has done nothing wrong (sounds like statements made by Blair Ministers before resigning) and will pay the construction company for work done whatever the opposition says. In any event the sums of money involved were ridiculously small. Despite this the Leader of the Popular opposition party intends to take the Mayor to Court for fraud and illegal payments.

In any normal democratic environment no official or councillor would put himself in a position for such an accusation being levied against him.

But as we all know Spain is different, as the much used official slogan goes.

DONATIONS
Here we go again. La Linea Socialists have revealed that the Construction Company AIFOS whose top bosses were involved in the Marbella fraud scandal “Malaya” and who spent time in prison before being released on bail seem to have given a “donation” to La Linea shortly after the Mayor, Carlos Juarez, and one of AIFOS representatives signed a contract. The funds were destined to La Linea cultural organisation for musical activities and bull fights and amounted to 90,000 Euros.
The Socialist Party are concerned that Clown Juarez denied the receipt of the money and has yet to disclose on which schemes the funds have been spent.

AIFOS usually grants or gives donations to entities where it carries out development in many municipalities where it obtains benefits.

Is this the same AIFOS that coincides with the name of Prince Felipe of Spain’s yacht in which he competes in sailing regattas and indeed wears kit and polo shits with the name AIFOS in a prominent place.

All in all there are definite cultural differences.

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